output splitter

I was using a friend's mixer to route my output signal to powered monitors as well as to a standard home stereo. My friend needed his mixer back. Is there any budget alternatives to listen route my signal to the monitors and to the stereo speakers? Somewhere around $50 USD?

Some kind of Y-cable?
Line-splitter?
Monitor management device?
Some kind of aux-box?

What's the source of the signal? Is it balanced or unbalanced? Your powered monitors will probably work with either a balanced or unbalanced input at pro line levels (+4dBu), but your home stereo will need an unbalanced input at domestic levels (-10dBV). There is about a factor of 4 (12dB) level difference between these two. The mixer you borrowed would have had this attenuation and unbalancing function built-in as part of the RCA tape outputs.

This means that at least you need an attenuator for driving the home stereo, but depending on the source, you may need to go from balanced to unbalanced as well. Tell us a little more and we can advise further.

Lots of companies make distribution amplifiers and or level converters.

Here is one these

You could just "Y" the output of your <insert name of device> to the powered monitors and your home hi fi but as others have said we need to know the nature of what your equipment is. If it is balanced or unbalanced and what levels each piece of equipment needs.

I solved the problem. I found an old AV aux box, where it has 3 rca stereo ins, and 1 rca stereo out. I just hooked it up in reverse, and now have 3 out for my speakers. Not a perfect solution by any means, but getting me buy.

You need something like the SM Pro Audio M-Patch 2. This has a common volume control and separate outputs for two different amplifiers or powered monitors, and switches to select which (or both) sets of speakers to use. The only thing you would have to take a little care over is how you cabled it to the input of your Teac amplifier, but that should not present any problems.

The M-Patch 2 is a passive device in the path of signals to your monitors, so there is no signal quality degradation, but it also has a headphone amplifier, so you can switch both sets of speakers off and listen via phones. You need to use the plug-top power supply supplied with it when you use headphones, but that's not needed for speaker switching and volume control.

Hi Boswell, thanks for taking the time. Been reading about one those SM Pro Audio M-Patch 2 devices earlier. Found a couple of bargins online. Is there any other methods you can think of to acheive these ends? Maybe a quick fix for the time being...
Thanks again.

So I can see this would take the input from the soundcard and would route this signal to the monitors - what would be a recomended way to send this signal to the Teac Amp? Is it kosher to use the XLR out put and modify the end of the wire for the Teac inputs? Bit stumped again. Cheers.

So I can see this would take the input from the soundcard and would route this signal to the monitors - what would be a recomended way to send this signal to the Teac Amp? Is it kosher to use the XLR out put and modify the end of the wire for the Teac inputs? Bit stumped again. Cheers.

Click to expand...

Yes, in this case you can take an unbalanced output by wiring only to pins 2 (signal) and 1 (ground) of the XLR. Amazon UK has several XLR - RCA cables, but you would have to check that XLR pin 3 is not wired to anything.

If you and your gear can cope with unbalanced RCA switching, there's a cheap 3-way stereo switch box available from Amazon UK that you could use instead of the M-Patch 2, but it really is a second-best.

You haven't filled in the section of your profile to say where you are located, but if the clue in the link you posted that it is in Italy, you may be able to find something similar near you.

Thanks for all the help. Jack that link was a good read, a little over my head but could grasp most of the fundermentals. I like the tone...

"It's popularity stems from the continual and perpetual difficulty of hooking up audio equipment without suffering through all sorts of bizarre noises, hums, buzzes, whistles, etc.-- not to mention the extreme financial, physical and psychological price."

Still figuring out the solution but I think i'm going to have to at least try that cheapo box. Another point of concern (which that article reminded me of) is that the output jacks from the tascam us-800 soundcard are unbalanced... so seems to make sense to use the unbalanced input of the monitors (clearly a potential problem).

We'll see. Oh and i'm from Leeds, U.K... Italy would be nice right now...

Having unbalanced outputs not really a problem in this case, and it's why I thought the box from Amazon would work. Just use unbalanced cables: phono (RCA) on the switch box connectors going to phono or TS jack plugs as appropriate on the equipment ends.